Sweaty, shirtless fans are soccer magic

Australian soccer has just become a political football and it’s tragic that this has occurred as the A-League nears the end of its most thrilling season ever, winning new fans every week – but, unfortunately, few high-profile advocates.

Victorian Premier
Ted Baillieu
lashed out against the code on Monday, decrying the prevalence of “absolute acts of bastardry" that were “completely foreign to the basis . . . of sports culture in Victoria". The implication was clear: this would never happen in AFL.

Really? The AFL, just as the NRL and cricket, has a dark past –from the Battle of Windy Hill between Essendon and Richmond more than four decades ago to the 12 arrests at last year’s AFL grand final.

A-League is the story of summer. What people like me love about the code is how far removed it is from the old format of the tainted national competition. It is fun and professional and fresh.

I was at the game Baillieu singled out, an electrifying match between Melbourne Victory, the benchmark for a successful club, and my beloved Western Sydney Wanderers. I can’t speak for the other 20,000 people there, but I saw no violence or menace. I loved it.

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Saturday night was about everything that’s gone right for the A-League after seven years of false starts and indifference. The stadium was heaving, the quality of the contest was excellent, it looked great on TV and the Wanderers snatched a sixth straight win.

And all this on the same weekend that Socceroos captain Lucas Neill confirmed his return to Sydney FC.

I was lucky to get a ticket in the Wanderers away bay because it was the first time AAMI Park sold out the section. You’ve probably seen the photos already of the sweaty, shirtless fans, the flares and the improvised banners. The imagery is an editor’s dream but with the wrong headline it can be dangerously misleading. These fans are what the league calls “active supporters". They may not be the kind of blokes you want to be sitting next to if you expect to spend the game kicking back, tweeting and breaking for snacks, but they are the kind of fans you want in your corner because this is where the unique atmosphere is seeded, the magic happens.

I’ve seen the MCG packed with 100,000 fans and it’s a sight to behold. But this is different and it’s better. These fans are organised, tireless and inventive. The language can be a bit blue but the parents I saw with kids in tow didn’t seem to mind.

And there’s something especially endearing to see 800 grown men turn a forgotten 1990s electronica hit into a snappy love song for Shinji Ono, the Wanderers’ marquee signing and a freak of technical genius. You can see his reaction when he hears it. He’s obviously tickled.

The most active fans are aware of being branded as provocateurs and they trade off of this tension too, using it to fuel their lyrical cause, a fictionalised narrative of rivalry. The Wanderers bloc has a song about paranoia. So what? It’s not a threat, it’s subversive. Relax, they are not really coming to get you.

Football Federation Australia is having its own discourse with active supporters and the process has been complicated as they figure out how to live together. There have been punishments dealt for bottle throwing and flares. On Saturday, a teenager was charged after clashing with police, an event reportedly handled with appropriate seriousness. Most people don’t want to see unsocial behaviour and mostly, they won’t.

The FFA can learn, from the success of clubs such as Victory and now the Wanderers, how to improve the spectator experience at Socceroos fixtures that can be disappointingly flat if the stakes are not, say, World Cup-qualifier standard. This points to one of the great contradictions in the game because the Socceroos have enormous support from fans and political leaders. But when it comes to the A-League, fans are on their own.

We are especially galled to be painted as agitators, just when things are going so well. It’s a plain injustice.

Pick a team, watch a match on television or, better still, soak up the atmosphere. This is the real thing and the worst-kept secret in football is that the A-League has the best supporters around. Some of us are even AFL fans.